Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Meeting in Schumer's Office

Hello Andrew,
I'm writing to thank you for meeting with Brook Nam and myself last Thursday, June 30 in your office. We appreciate your taking the time to discuss the very important issues of war and peace with us.

We also appreciate that you gave us a copy of the letter to President Obama, which Senator Schumer and other senators signed, expressing support for a "sizable and sustained reduction of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan." I believe that you had mentioned that you would send me a list of the other signatories to that letter. I would appreciate it if you would do so at your earliest convenience.

Our group would also like to stress that we would like to see a more rapid timetable for withdrawal than the President has set forward, and that we want to see not only uniformed service members, but also private contractors, moved out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible, with no permanent military bases left behind.

We are also concerned about the seeming buildup to military action in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and other countries, and we want to emphasize that we do not want troops removed from Afghanistan and redeployed to any other nation, except the United States.

Please convey these sentiments to Senator Schumer as soon as possible, and again, thank you for inviting us to state our case.